Ohlendorf Vows to Continue Hard Work

If Saturday's start does turn out to be Ross Ohlendorf's final
one of the season, as is expected, he will head into the offseason
pleased with his progress since the All-Star break.

He won't, however, take anything for granted despite his strong
showing in the second half of the year.

"I feel like I've shown that I can be effective here, but that
certainly doesn't mean I don't have to keep getting better,"
Ohlendorf said. "Just because I'm pitching well now doesn't mean I'm
always going to pitch well. I'm have to make sure I continue to work
on things and keep getting better, not take steps backward, and when
I do have bad games, and I'm sure they will come, that I'm able to
get out of it and pitch well the next time."

Ohlendorf is 11-10 with a 4.03 ERA. In the second half, he is 4-
3 with a 2.82 ERA. He has pitched 1762/3 innings, and manager John
Russell had said they would shut him down when he got between 170
and 180 innings.

Russell said after the Pirates' 2-1 loss to the San Diego Padres
that they would evaluate in the next day or two whether or not
Ohlendorf will pitch again over the final 16 games of the season.
The manager also said that Ohlendorf opened some eyes this year.

"He's built every start, and now when he goes out there it's
impressive to watch because he just continues to pound the strike
zone using all his pitches on both sides of the plate," Russell
said. "It's been, I wouldn't say a pleasant surprise, but it's been
really fun to watch him and we're really excited about having this
guy in a Pirates uniform for a long time."

Injuries piling up

Garrett Jones did not play yesterday because of a sore right
shoulder resulting from a diving play at first base in Friday
night's win. Russell said he hoped to have him back for today's
game. …

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